Addressing Scope 3 emissions
Stahl’s climate change mitigation ambitions include the reduction of its Scope 3 (upstream) greenhouse gas emissions by 25% over the next 10 years as well as supporting customers in achieving their own climate goals.
World Leather - Feb/Mar 0
Over-complication
In the first in a series of articles that draw on his long, personal experience as a tanner, technical editor, Matthew Abbott, argues that the processes involved in making leather are difficult enough already. To add more complexity is to invite trouble.
World Leather - Dec/Jan 2020
Sacred Cow: It’s the How
The Sacred Cow project is soon to release a book and a movie, making the case
for an ethical, regenerative food system built around well-raised cattle.
World Leather - Jun/July 2020
Management of microbial growth on hides and leather (part one)
Leather is a natural product susceptible to microbial growth owing to the presence of proteins and
lipids. Tanneries provide an environment that lends itself to microbiological development since there
are sources of nutrients and water throughout the manu
World Leather - Oct/Nov 2019
Automated grading – removing the subjectivity
DVLeather SRL was formed after Detect Vision, a Canadian company specialising
in computer vision, and Feltre, an Italian provider of automation and transportation
systems for the tanning industry, decided to combine their expertise. Combining
traditional
World Leather - Aug/Sept 2019
Reducing natural leather wrinkles to maximise cutting yield
Wrinkles are genetically programmed in any animal and appear as the breakdown of
collagen occurs with age. The degradation is achieved by an immutable biochemistry that,
over time, creates collagen-related aging compounds that are increasingly dry, weak a
World Leather - Aug/Sept 2019
Hides go to waste
Demand for high-quality leather remains strong, but no one in the global
industry can be in any doubt that lower-value material is harder to sell
than at any time in living memory. As a result, what we thought would
never happen has come to pass: hides re
World Leather - Apr/May 2019
Arzignano is the leather industry’s Silicon Valley
The much travelled international sales director of leather chemicals group GSC, Diego Cisco, argues
that the Arzignano tanning cluster, near his company’s headquarters in northern Italy, can offer an
example of leadership, innovation and entrepreneurial s
World Leather - Jun/July 2018
Salting hides needs to stop
Meat consumption will continue and hides will continue to move from abattoirs into leather production. In
this article, based on an influential speech he made at the third World Leather Congress in Shanghai in
2017, World Leather’s publisher and chief exe
World Leather - Apr/May 2018
Reduction of salt usage in leather processing
The issue of salt usage is one which the leather industry is still fighting to address.
World Leather technical editor Mike Tomkin delves deeper into why it poses such a
big problem and calls on the industry to do more to tackle it head-on.
World Leather - Apr/May 2018
Waterproofing innovation
Lanxess has introduced a self-emulsifying polymer that it says can help tanners produce leather with high levels of waterproofness from variable raw material.
World Leather - Apr/May 2018
Smit & zoon has big plans for India
At the recent India International Leather Fair (IILF) in Chennai, World Leather sat
down with the CEO of Smit & zoon, Hans van Haarst, to discuss the leather
chemical manufacturer’s plans for the Indian market, its Product Passport and
the motivations beh
World Leather - Feb/Mar 2018
A new way of importing New Zealand sheepskins
Technical editor Mike Tomkin examines how New Zealand-based tanner Lowe Corporation is working to address some of the challenges it faces as an exporter of sheepskins.
World Leather - Oct/Nov 2017
greenLIFE 3: New renewable tanning technologies
Green Leather Industry for the Environment (greenLIFE) is a project run by a
group of industry partners in Italy’s Arzignano tanning cluster. The project
partners have committed to sharing their findings by publishing a series of
papers in World Leather.
World Leather - Apr/May 2017
Developments in fatliquoring
At February’s IULTCS Congress in Chennai, Dirick von Behr, technical manager for leather at chemicals
manufacturer Smit & zoon, presented a paper entitled “Method for determining the optimised exhaustion of
fatliquors to minimise the ETP-inflow”. The pape
World Leather - Apr/May 2017
Tackling “veininess”, Part two
The second and final part of a paper from Lanxess examining the best strategy for addressing the problem
of veininess in hides. The first part appeared in World Leather December 2016-January 2017.
World Leather - Feb/Mar 2017
Tackling “veininess”, Part one
Veininess usually refers to an unsightly defect visible on the
grain linked to sunken veins. Nevertheless, prominent
arteries too can result in downgrading of the leather, so it
would be better to refer to “blood vessels”; however, for the sake
of consist
World Leather - Dec/Jan 2016
ReVeal – the Dutch veal and calfskin industry opens its doors
Leather chemicals manufacturer Stahl hosted a one-day event called ReVeal last November.
The aim was to give finished product brands up-to-date information about transparency
and traceability in the leather supply chain, with the focus firmly on Dutch cal
World Leather - Dec/Jan 2016
Focus on Automotive Leather: Better from Brazil
Improvements in livestock farming and in raw material handling are helping Brazilian packers produce better quality raw material, argues JBS Couros’s Guilherme Motta. He believes it could be time for automotive companies to make more use of Brazilian hide
World Leather - June/July 2016
The rise of automotive leather
As car manufacturers around the world report record sales and expanding
production, the future looks rosy for their leather suppliers. However, it is
not all plain sailing: battles over raw material are set to intensify and
leather will have work to keep
World Leather - Feb/Mar 2015
Avoiding poor tensile strength values
The tensile strength of leather is a physical-mechanical
property which is directly linked to the properties of the
raw hide, chemical processing, and the physical
operations involved in manufacturing a particular leather.
World Leather - Feb/Mar 2015
Small moulds can cause big problems
Asignificant cause of loss in value in leather processing
is due to fungal or bacterial growth, and even biocidal
agents fail in certain cases. These small
microorganisms are not visible to the naked eye, and are
normally only identified when the defect r
World Leather - Aug/Sep 2010
Somalia: The Berbera Tannery
The region that today encompasses Somaliland was home
to the earliest civilization in the region. The most salient
feature of this ancient civilization is thought to be the
Laas Geel Neolithic cave paintings, which are among the oldest
such rock art in Af
World Leather - Dec/Jan 2013
Tanneries for tourists but not for real leather manufacture
The conversion of raw skins into leather as a durable and protective product is among the earliest of crafts. Leather manufacture has now evolved into a sophisticated and
technically developed industry but there are a few remaining examples that provide a
World Leather - Oct/Nov 2013
Medieval leathermaking lives on in Afghanistan
A significant proportion of Pakistan’s raw material supply comes from the war-torn country. Traders and hide/skin merchants salt, sort and select for export to Lahore, Karachi, Sialkot or Kasur by the truckload.
World Leather - Apr/May 2010
Variations within hides and skins
The structure of hides and skins is modified in leather making to make leathers with specified properties. Many of the natural variations found across a skin can be addressed to make both the appearance and physical properties more uniform. The following images indicate the effects of the major processing stages.
World Leather - Feb/Mar 2010
Anthrax: danger in raw hides
Anthrax can be transmitted to human beings via endospores by entering broken skin and germinating there, being inhaled and germinating in the lungs or by being eaten and germinating in the gastrointestinal tract. Spores can form after the hide of an infec
World Leather - Apr/May 2011
Innovation Part 1: Recycling and regeneration
Twenty world standard tanneries have opened their doors for in-depth study as part of Tannery of the Year Awards 2009 and 2011. Considerable technical information has been published in World Leather following these visits, and there has been an emphasis o
World Leather - Oct/Nov 2011
Expert questions Uttar Pradesh pollution ‘breakthrough’
The central pollution control board of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh claims to have come up with a new, salt-free method of preserving hides and has talked of compelling tanners to put the new technology into practice. But a seasoned industry observer
World Leather - Aug/Sep 2011
New development in low salt pickling technology
Common salt used for the preservation of the raw hides and skins contributes the most to the effluent salinity, followed by the salt deriving from the pickling and tanning bath.
World Leather - Jun/Jul 2009
The physical properties across a side and throughout a pack of leather
The objective of the original study was to determine a location on a piece of leather where the properties could be best related to a complete pack of leathers. These investigations were complex, and produced a vast amount of information. This was present
World Leather - 04 - June/July 2008
Advances in the degreasing of hides
A new lipase degreasing product provides additional benefits such as improved grain tightness, better flatness, cleanliness of the hide, improved dyeing levelness, and has the potential to reduce fogging characteristics and improve hydrophobing. In additi
World Leather - 05 - Aug/Sept 2008
A new aqueous transfer coating system for splits
Transfer coating of splits is a well-established process in leather finishing. The physical properties and the optical advantages are significant. The state-of-the-art technology is solvent-based systems, applied either via spraying technology or with rol
World Leather - 02 - April 2008
Bangladesh: analysis of the leather, footwear and leathergoods industry
The leather sector is perceived as one of the important economic sectors in Bangladesh. An important feature is that the businesses in this sector are privately owned, with only a few units belonging to multinational companies. Wet blue leather produced b
World Leather - 02 - April 2008
The Colombian leather sector: A renaissance banquet of feast and famine
The basis of the Renaissance was the willingness of people to adopt technology and concepts from other cultures. The Colombian leather sector, while very traditional, nevertheless still has a positive Renaissance outlook. Since there has been a very deep
World Leather - 02 - April 2008
Advances in the degreasing of hides
A new lipase degreasing product (1) is described that provides good degreasing when compared to the use of standard surfactants. It provides additional benefits such as improved grain tightness, better flatness, cleanliness of the hide, improved dyeing levelness, and has the potential to reduce fogging characteristics and improve hydrophobing. In addition, the replacement of surfactants by lipase offers significant ecological benefits within the degreasing process and in the subsequent treatment of wastewaters.
World Leather - 01 - Feb/Mar 2008
The physical properties across a side and throughout a pack of leather
The information presented in this paper provides insight into the fundamental variations in the physical properties found throughout a pack of leather, and across a typical side/hide taken from that pack. The objective of the original study was to determine a location on a piece of leather where the properties
could be best related to a complete pack of leathers. These investigations were complex, and produced a vast amount of information. This was presented in a condensed form within the original four papers: these in turn have been used selectively to produce this profile on cross-hide and intra-pack variation.
World Leather - 01 - Feb/Mar 2008
Cross-hide variations in physical properties:
There are considerable variations in the degree of resistance
to stretch across the hide of a living animal. The areas of
butt, backbone and across the rib cage do not need to stretch to the same degree as the belly, shanks and axillea parts.
In addition, there are variations in the degree of stretch resistance in directions parallel and perpendicular to the backbone. This variability is due to the non-uniform layout of collagen fibres within the skin which are aligned to differing degrees in different locations. Thus the starting material for leather manufacture is highly non-uniform. Subsequent manufacturing steps used to make leather will significantly modify this naturally occurring non-uniformity.
World Leather - 01 - Feb/Mar 2008
Grain down splitting opens the way
The advent of the “upside down” grain down splitting machine developed several years ago by the Linta Company has made it possible to introduce new feeding and take off systems creating the splitting line. This, as well as the changed roller/knife mountin
World Leather - 03 - May 2008
Preserving agents in the leather production process
Due to extended times in transport and storage, leathers in the wet blue and wet white
condition need protection against bacterial and fungal contamination. This is provided by
synthetic preserving agents. However, triggered by new regulations, these agen
World Leather - 03 - May 2008
The regeneration of used salt from curing
One of the major problems that the leather industry needs to address is the issue of salinity. It is well known that most of the salt component in tannery effluents is generated from the salt used for preservation of hides and skins. There is always an excess of salt applied to ensure a complete cure, so, as a first step to reduce salinity, this surplus can be shaken from the hides and skins before beginning the soaking process. Various methods are used, but the question then arises, what happens to this contaminated salt?
World Leather - 08 - Dec/Jan 2007
Reducing the amount of salt required for hide and skin preservation
In Pakistan the most common method of curing is by salting. But all of this salt is subsequently removed and most of this enters tannery effluent where it can only be removed under extreme conditions. It is also the major source of salinity found in tannery effluents.
World Leather - 08 - Dec/Jan 2007
The application of modern biotechnology methods and the manufacture of quality leathers
The increased use of biotechnology methods by leading chemical supply companies is impacting the way that leather is produced today. Changes have resulted in improvements to the repeatability of processing, reductions in cost, and a decrease in the environmental footprint along with improvements in leather quality.
World Leather - 05 - Aug/Sept 2007
Swelling within the leather manufacturing process
Swelling is the increase of volume of a material due to the absorption and/or retention of a solvent, by structural changes or heat. The word implies a shift from the norm, or a comparison to a less distended state.
World Leather - Nov 2006
Technologies to improve the useful area of leather
The manufacturing of leather is facing diverse challenges including pressure from the eco-toxicity point of view, in the form of stringent new regulations. The measures necessary to deal with these issues add to the cost pressure that tanners are experien
World Leather - Aug/Sep 2006
Back to Basics: A framework for leather manufacture. Essay 11
Although there is considerable information available on the construction of machines in the tannery, there is very little detail available on the engineering principles involved. Moreover, there is even less information available concerning the way that f
World Leather - Feb/Mar 2006
The real cost of a kilo of salt
The following paper provides an overview of a different approach to tanning. The technique is managed in the ‘non-swelling’ pH zone, and thus eliminates the need for salt within the conventional acid pickle. The fibre stabilisation provided – somewhat sim
World Leather - Nov 2005
Bating: gaining area while retaining cutting values
It is almost 100 years since Otto Röhm introduced the first
industrial application of an enzymatic product. This was the
bating process of animal hides within leather production, the
enzymes being derived from pancreatic glands. This can be seen
World Leather - Oct 2004
The ruminant stomach: not just sausages and animal food
The two outer layers of the stomach are of no interest to the leather industry. They may be viewed as the equivalent to the subcutis from hides and skins. The internal layer of the stomach - the gastric mucosa - is the part most suitable for the tanning i
World Leather - Dec/Jan 2003
Weight = area?
Within the leather making sector the preference for hide purchases based on area instead of weight have been the subject of debate and investigation. However, neither measurement by
weight nor area provides a truly accurate yardstick for predicting either
World Leather - Nov 2003
Round hides into flat leather
The need for flat shoe upper material, with predictable stretch, set and ‘memory’, are well appreciated in footwear manufacture. Leather can provide these properties. Nevertheless, given the basic uniqueness of each raw hide, the degree of uniformity achi
World Leather - June/July 2003
